Word.ws English Dictionary

first olive out of the bottle

first olive out of the bottle noun: an initial obstacle or hindrance, preventing further progress until it is dealt with.

Noun

first olive out of the bottle

  1. An initial obstacle or hindrance, preventing further progress until it is dealt with.
    • The first paragraph of each month's article is the hardest to get out, it is like getting the first olive out of the bottle and after the first one is out the rest come easy.1940, The Elevator Constructor, volume 37, page 26
    • To me the important thing was to get the first olive out of the bottle. Once we got the first debate on, whether it was a debate or a “Face the Nation” or “Meet the Press” kind of program, this did not trouble me.1961, Columbia Broadcasting System, “Comments of Senator John O. Pastore”, in Inc.

Synonyms of first olive out of the bottle

Questions about first olive out of the bottle

What does first olive out of the bottle mean?
First olive out of the bottle means an initial obstacle or hindrance, preventing further progress until it is dealt with.
What part of speech is first olive out of the bottle?
First olive out of the bottle is a noun.

Words near first olive out of the bottle in the dictionary

  1. first of all
  2. first of never
  3. first off
  4. first officer
  5. first officers
  6. first olive out of the bottle
  7. first olive out of the jar
  8. first order of the day
  9. first order stream
  10. first order streams
  11. first orders of the day

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: first olive out of the bottle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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